I was wondering if any other women have experienced weird or irregular periods in their early 40's.

I'm 42 and my periods have become somewhat off-the-wall. I've noticed spotting in between (no, there's no chance that I'm pregnant) but not really actual 'spots', per se, it's just faint bleeding that I see maybe once or twice a day, but not EVERY day, and then it stops. Now, however, I'm on my actual period and it's like I won't stop bleeding. I'm going on day 11 now of a regular (and sometimes heavy) flow and my periods have never lasted more than 5 days.

At 42, is it possible I'm going through perimenopause? I've done some reading and it says irregular periods (because of perimenopause) usually start between the ages of 35 and 45 and can last for years before actual pre-menopause. I know the best thing to do is get my butt to the doctor to make sure nothing is wrong, which I plan to do. But I wanted to post here about it as well to see if anyone else is going through the same thing. I'm getting tired of bleeding!

My mother had about 3 years of weird periods, then when she was 40 years old she had her last one and hasn't had one since. She was one of the very lucky ones. After age 40 she has had no spotting no anything. I think at your age unfortunately it's normal.

I think so too, after some of the reading I've done. But boy is it annoying. Like I said, I am soooooo tired of bleeding. However, I'm trying to drink plenty of water and I eat pretty healthy, so I don't know, maybe that will help.

11 days! I've never bled this long in my life!

It says your periods can become really screwy for 4-7 YEARS before you actually hit menopause. You're officially "in" menopause when you've gone 1 year without a period. I don't really think it's diet/food-related because I've been at my new lifestyle for 19 months now, you'd think something would have shown up sooner if it had anything to do with my eating habits.

Thanks for the response

Linda - I am 32 and I just went through a period of bleeding every day for a whole month. I had an abnormally heavy period (10+ days, LOTS of blood) and then I spotted for the next month. I just went to the doctor last week and she found a large fibroid (non-cancerous growth in the uterus) that needs to be removed. This is what was causing my bleeding. I would definitely go to your doctor and get it checked out. They detect fibroids by doing an ultrasound, so you might want to mention your condition when making your appointment in case they want to schedule the ultrasound at the same time.

Good luck and hope everything works out.

Thank you, I thought about the fibroids as well. I haven't had any weird cramping or pain or anything, just the bleeding.

I think, to be safe, I'll go ahead and make an appt. with my doc

I don't have much pain or cramping, just a small amount that I could have attributed to a normal period.

Yeah, every now and then I feel little twinges of crampy pains, but it's nothing bad. Like you said, normal period pains.

But 11 days of bleeding is definitely excessive for me. I thought maybe yesterday it was finally going to stop because it slowed down and was real faint. But then it started back up again

I will be 45 next month, and for about the past 9 months or so, I've had very strange periods. Basically very small amounts of spotting in between periods. I went to the doctor -- they did a pap smear & a biopsy of my uterine lining to make sure there wasn't anything dreadful going on -- and then said "welcome to perimenopause" . I understand that you can get pills or hormones or something to regulate it all out -- I haven't been back to the dr. after finding out I wasn't dying any time soon -- at least not of that .

Hope that helps!

Oh goody. Just another wonderful thing to look forward to, huh? What scares me is they say women going through menopausal stages put on weight more easily and it's harder than ever to keep it off. I don't know how true that is, but dammit, if this is what I'm starting to go through, I'm worried I've taken all this weight off just to have to kill myself to KEEP it off.

~sigh~

Unfortunately it does sound like early signs of menopause, like one of the other ladies said about her mother, my mother did the same thing, in her forties she quit completely and never saw another period. I, myself am either late or early but they come pretty regular, however I do experience other signs of pre-menopause. The mood swings,nervousness...etc. But most people will say if you want to know how menopause will effect you, just go ask your mother, some claim daughters tend to go through menopause the same way their mothers did.

Well, I can't, my mother passed away in 2002. So unfortunately I can't ask her, but wish I could.

I don't know, maybe I'm being overly paranoid. Because although I've been bleeding for 11 days now, maybe I've always bled that long but just never paid any attention to it because I've never written it down on the calendar like I have this last time. The reason I started marking it down is because of the spotting in between. So who knows, this may just be a regular period for me. However, I still want to make an appt. with my doctor because I'm due for a pap anyway

LLV, Please yes make that appointment..It just seems like 11 days is an awfully long time to be bleeding/spotting. You might want to consider having your FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone) and LH (luteinzing Hormone) levels checked. This test is used to determine if you are going into menopause.

Not to scare anyone out there..but I was in complete menopause by 28/29 years old. The gyno I went to when the character of my periods changed never thought to check at that age if I could be menopausal..and when we went to an infertility doc..well, that's when I found out. I really thought I was going crazy for a few years..mood swings, sweats, all of a sudden I couldn't stand loud noise or crowds.. I gained 60 pounds it seemed overnight. I had a very hard time getting through the "changes" that lasted years. LLV.. good luck to you !

That's what's weird, I don't have any other 'symptoms' of it. Just the weird bleeding. But I'm sure not all women go through the same symptoms.

And I've always hated crowds, lol.

You're all right, though, a doc appt. certainly couldn't hurt. Like I said, I'm about due for a pap anyway, so I'll make an appt. for next week. It may be nothing, it may be something significant. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose